The King's General Quotes

“but fate and circumstance had made me no more than a shadow in his life, a phantom of what might have been”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“We change from the awakening questing creatures we were once, afire with wonder, and expectancy, and doubt, to persons of opinion and authority, our habits formed, our characters moulded in a pattern”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“In memory of Robert Harris, sometime Major-General of His Majesty's forces before Plymouth, who was buried hereunder the 29th day of June 1655. And of Honor Harris his sister, who was likewise here underneath buried, the 17th day of November, in the year of our Lord 1653.
Loyall and stout; they Crime this--this thy praise.
Thou'rt here with Honour laid--though without Bayes.”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“What might have been—what could have been. These are the saddest phrases in our English tongue.”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“It is not easy to be gallant in an apple tree. Perhaps you will tell your mother.”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“Richard turned and saw me. And as he looked at me it was as if my whole heart moved over in my body and was mine no longer”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“She reminded me of something, and suddenly I knew. I was a tiny child again at Radford, my uncle’s home, and he was walking me through the glass-houses in the gardens. There was one flower, an orchid, that grew alone; it was the colour of pale ivory, with one little vein of crimson running through the petals. The scent filled the house, honeyed, and sickly sweet. It was the loveliest flower I had ever seen. I stretched out my hand to stroke the soft velvet sheen, and swiftly my uncle pulled me by the shoulder. ‘Don’t touch it, child. The stem is poisonous.”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“When the water drains from the marshes, and little by little the yellow sands appear, rippling and hard and firm, it seems to my foolish fancy, as I lie here, that I too go seaward with the tide, and all my old hidden dreams that I thought buried for all time are bare and naked to the day, just as the shells and the stones are on the sands.”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“Did you never try," I asked, "to make some life of happiness?"

"Happiness was not in question," he said; "that went with you, a factor you refused to recognise.”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“we only become aware of hot discomfort when others are made awkward for our sakes”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“Your father,” I answered him, “has enough work on his hands without keeping house for a crippled woman.”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“Resignation brings its own reward”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General

“I knew that we were bound together for all time and I could not send him from me. His faults were my faults, his arrogance my burden, and he stood there, Richard Grenvile, what my tragedy had made him.”
― Daphne du Maurier, The King's General